Intertwining Fates
by Romulus98
Summary: Two warriors from two different worlds come together through unexpected circumstances. Will they be able to come together to survive the coming threat? Fem OC/FemShep pair. ON HOLD
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I don't own EVE Online nor do I own Mass Effect and its series, nor will I ever. __Although that would be awesome._

Wow, you know, I never saw myself as like writing a continuous story like this, ever. I wrote a lot of backstories for characters for Roleplay servers in Garry's Mod sure, but I never wrote stories like this before. But hey, here I am. Well, dot my eyes, cross my tees and hope for the best cause that's all I can do.

I got the idea for this story one day when I was a few weeks into waiting for December because my subscription for EVE Online ended and I had to wait for my birthday to get any money. Life story for high schoolers everywhere there. At the time I was also reading a crap ton of ME crossovers, Halo, LoTR, more Halo, but not a lot of EVE Online ones. Well over time and reading even more ME crossovers a plot for this story just popped into my head so at night I would just think it over, how would it start, how would my EVE Online character be introduced, which ME game should I start out in. Well, here's what I got.

Btw, I'm gonna be changing some bits and pieces on the EVE ships for reality's sake. I'm still keeping the base components so don't worry about a huge change.

' ' Thoughts

* * *

**Unintentional Meeting**

"So Ange, get the plan? Get in, find whatever's in there, get out. Simple."

"Hai, hai. This isn't exactly the first time I've done this so you know Jack." Ange replied.

"So? Doesn't mean I can't be repetitive." Jack's voice crackled over the comm.

"Whatever, I'll be back in a bit, keep the comms open so you don't shoot me when I come back." Ange said.

"Hey, not my fault the comms broke down that day." Jack replied, sounding all innocent.

"Yes, of course, EVERYONE'S comms broke down at the EXACT same time." I replied, starting the engines on my Curse.

She started moving towards the gate, my engines flaring in the dark of space in front of the assault fleet from my corp. Again, inside the pod, she reveled in the information she receives from all the sensors all over her ship. An Amaar Curse Combat Recon vessel, none of her other ships can even come close. Coming up to the gate, starting the activation sequence. She once again activated the comms with a thought,"I'll be back in a flash Jack!" And jumped in a flash of light, receding into the far distance.

All of a sudden, the ship started to shake and rumble. The ship itself seems to still be enroute to its destination, although it should have been more or less instantaneous.'Shit, what the hell?' She thought to herself. Checking all her sensors and running checks on her systems, she finds out that a star on the way to her destination went supernova, the radiation interfering with her jump. Suddenly the ships started to creak and groan, like its being pulled every which way at the same time.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit. Why the hell am I still in jump? Its near instantaneous!' She exclaimed to herself.

Then, just as quickly as the problems started, it stopped, and the jump tossed her out into real space. Mumbling angrily to herself, she started sensor sweeps of the system she was in, activating her cloak. Her mind was still a bit fogged up in anger, but something cleared all that in a heartbeat. 'Where is all the ships?'

She expected to have come out in a staging point for the enemy of her corporation, it should be full of ships they were about to hit, yet there was _nothing_ here. Then something caught her attention, a couple of ships orbiting a nearby planet, a garden world. Jumping there, and activating her sensor sweeps again. 'Weird, those ships aren't any models I know, and I haven't even seen them on the market. Hmm, lets try a conversation.'

* * *

"Get the supplies and Shepard's body down onto the planet, we need to hurry up, The Illusive Man wants this done as quickly as possible."

"Yes ma'am."

"Excuse me Operative Lawson, I still have my doubts that this project will even work, Shepard has been dead for too long of a time to be able to be brought back from the dead."

"That's not my problem, The Illusive Man put you in charge of bringing him back from the dead, so its your problem not mine, you will complete this project or else." Replied Miranda.

"But-" Started the doctor.

Miranda turns around, staring right into his eyes."Do we have a problem?"

"No ma'am." The doctor shuffling off, mumbling some words Miranda couldn't hear as he walks away.

Then the comms officer called her."Ma'am, we're being hailed by someone."

"Who is it, The Illusive Man isn't supposed to call in for a few more hours." Miranda said, turning back around to face the holo map of the system.

"That's the problem, we don't know who it is, there is also no ships-"Replied the officer till he was interrupted.

"Ship uncloaking to our starboard!"

"What?! Get me eyes on that ship, no one is supposed to know about this. Warm up the guns, I want firing solutions on it." Exclaimed Miranda.

"Copy that, warming up the driver, GUARDIAN systems active, turning us about. Ship is on the viewport." The weapons officer shot back.

Miranda then walked to the viewport, looking out towards the unknown ship. Normally she would be able to know what class and race the ship belonged to, but this ship doesn't even come close to any she knew. The ship itself was twice the size of her ship at around 600 meters. It doesn't look like there was any weapons on it, but Miranda could see some closed ports around the ships, all of them placed in rows and evenly spaced.

"Ma'am, its hailing us again." The comms officer spoke up.

Miranda, pondering her options, decided to open a channel."Open a channel, I want to know who this is."

"Copy that, opening a channel now."

The channel open, all they got was static, then suddenly, it cleared up on its own. Showing a blond European woman, her hair reaching her chin, a wide smile on her lips. She looked around 6 feet tall, her arms and legs lithe, but showed some muscle. She was dressed in a hoodie with an unknown symbol on her chest. Her pants was a black pair of jeans flowing down to black combat boots. All this without a single hint of fear, instead she oozed confidence seemingly out of her pores.

"Good work comms." Miranda quickly commented.

"Uh, that wasn't me ma'am." He shot back quickly.

Narrowing her eyes at the woman,"I see." Then to the woman,"Who are you, this is restricted space belonging to the Alliance, identify yourself or we will fire on you."

* * *

Ange looked at the woman standing on the platform, all her movements and body language seemed like she demanded immediate respect from those around her. She was clothed in a skintight full body suit, showing off all her curves. Smiling, Ange replied,"Hello there, I'm Ange, it seems that I got kinda lost, do you mind telling me where I am?"

Moments earlier she utilized her ship's impressive electronic warfare capabilities to silently hack in to the ship's systems, already she's reading all the information stored in the databanks and reading all transmissions to and from the ship. All this from the open channel that the woman in front of her opened. There was some interesting stuff in here, Cerberus, Project Lazarus, Shepard, Reapers, these guys have problems don't they.

On the other ship, Miranda narrowed her eyes even more, crossing her arms in front of her chest."Well Ange, that information is classified, now if you don't leave we will be forced to fire on you."

"I see, but the thing is _Operative Miranda Lawson, _I don't want to. Plus, that _Project Lazarus_ of yours sound really interesting, need some help?"

Onboard the Cerberus flagship, Miranda and the crew was stunned speechless. Who the hell was this person? Immediately, Miranda motioned to her weapons officer to open fire,"Fire everything, destroy her ship."

The weapons officer tapped on his console, but only got a red alert on his display saying that its not possible. He tries again, but still isn't working."Uh, ma'am, the controls aren't responding."

Right now Miranda is absolutely FUMING, looking at Ange looking all smug. Then making a gesture to the comms officer, closed the channel."Contact the other ships, have them open fire on that ship, then salvage anything you can find."

About to walk out, all the power on the ship suddenly died, then a voice came over the intercom,"I can't let you do that Miranda, Not that you would win fighting me anyway. Plus, it seems that you could use some help waking up the dead."

'Ange….Who the hell is she.' Miranda thought as she fumed."What do you want."

"Well, for one thing, this Project Lazarus of yours sound really interesting, mind if I join? This Shepard person sounds really cool."Ange replied back through the intercom.

"Thats it? Thats all you want? To only join in Project Lazarus?" Miranda was incredulous. In only a few minutes someone in an unknown ship uncloaked near her ships and already hacked into her's and already looked through everything in the database it seems. And she only wants to join Project Lazarus?!

"Yep, thats about it really." Ange replied back, before the power all came back, and a channel reopened, showing Ange again. "So, do we have a deal? I'll help you with Lazarus, and in return you'll let me stay around, I need some data about this place anyway."

Miranda was faced with a tough decision. Normally she would ask The Illusive Man about this, but she assumed that her transmission were being tracked and read, and she couldn't let his location be compromised. "Fine, you'll be allowed to stay for the time being, any suspicious activities and we will destroy you ship."

Ange looked at her, all smug,"Yes of course, well, to a good partnership that is well endowed! I'll see you on the ground at your base."

The channel closed and Miranda couldn't get any angrier. Immediately, she signaled for a shuttle to be ready for her to take her down to the base.'Lets see how long this deal goes. I better contact The Illusive Man soon about this, he'll be furious.'

* * *

Well there ya go, chapter 1 of my story. Review and what-have-yous please! Hopefully I can get the next chapter up in a jiffy.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I don't own EVE Online or Mass Effect, although that would be so cool._

Hello! I'm back with chapter 2! On the same day as ch Well, its not going to be like the last one instead its a diary! I want to hurry through the 2 years it takes for Shepard to come back from the dead, so I'm having Ange write a diary of whats going on in the two years and what she does in that time.

Enjoy!

p.s. Start off from when Ange met with Cerberus last chapter. Most likely I'm ending this diary a few days before Shepard gets rudely awakened, so be warned!

* * *

**Through Blood, Sweat, and Tears**

Day 1: So, met with that Miranda chick at the base down on the planet, yeah, she's a pain to deal with, too damn uptight. Needs to get that stick out of her ass. And that Shepard person? Turns out she's a chick! Just for being a chick and doing all that and rubbing it in the Council's face, respect earned. Considering all the problems this place has, its given to the right person, oh by the way, this place doesn't have any ores I know of! No Veldspar, Megacyte, Plagioclose, none of those! Now I have more stuff to take care of.

Day 7: That Wilson guy seriously needs to go back to school. UGH, through sheer force of will that the incinerator didn't get used. Anyway, got some work done on this place's ores, so far I got titanium, steel, iron, aluminum, platinum compared. Also, some of the alcohol around here has radiation in it. What? That was my reaction! Anyway, I was doing inventory of the stuff in my cargo hold and I found a mining module. Lucky…. Now I just need to fit it…

Day 15: Got a quick look at Shepard, damn. 6 months I heard she was dead, good thing she was frozen though. Well, now I know that titanium here is more or less the same as tritanium, there is a few variables that is different but its a close enough replacement. Although no matter what I won't be able to make ships or space stations to call my own out of the eyes of anyone. Well, I technically I can if I contract a ship builder or someone like that. Eh, I'll have to see. Plus, I've been hearing about a place called Illium being really good to make some cash, he he, money makes the universe go around they say.

Day 45: Damn, been a month since my last entry, well I managed to visit Illium and using some cash I swiped from Miranda's account (Take that you stuck up bitch!) I managed to already corner the market. The faces of those Volus bankers! HA! Priceless, everyone was going,"WTF IS GOING ON!?" Seriously, made my week right there. I stayed a bit on Illium, managed to make a shell company, and hey, guess what it specializes in? Ship building! Why didn't I think of that? Oh yeah, got a look at Biotics and Eezo or Element Zero. Reduced mass huh, handy, implications stunning, more research required.

Day 70: Welp, got more work done on the mineral problem. Copper and gold I can use to replace Isogen, although I don't know yet to what degree. Megacyte I need a mixture of stuff to replace from the minerals here, sucks. I can use aluminum to replace Mexallon to a degree although I don't think I can combine it with titanium like I can with Tritanium and Mexallon. Well onwards! With SCIENCE!

Day 125: So word around is that Shepard's body is coming back together, I managed to hack in to the cameras in her room (Security sucks! XP) Its starting to look good, less bony and more fleshy. This place's tech on that sector sucks though, they don't even have cloning! Went back to Illium more cash, more companies, etc.

Day 175: Nothing new really, more money, more advances on the minerals here. Bleh. I also started having that shipbuilding company of mine start building a Venture, although I have no idea if they would be able to, considering the neural link and all that.

Day 225: Well, turns out they can make the hull and al that stuff, I'll just have it in the dry dock for now until they finish it and I get the electronics and neural stuff ready. I should probably get someone to start building me a small station. Wonder how much that costs. Terminus Systems sound nice though, sounds like Null Sec enough, I want to meet this Aria chick though, she sounds like someone I want to meet.

Day 267: Went to the Terminus Systems and went ratting a little, and luckily I managed to find a few pirates, Batarians it seems, and they tried to attack me! Ha! That was fun, guess I got some combat data now though. Seems like my beam turrets on my ship bypasses kinetic barriers easy, although I had a sneaking suspicion before, now its confirmed. But the way the beams just sliced through their hull, like a hot knife through butter, damn. My missiles though, kinetic barriers stopped them yeah, but I guess that the payload was too much, one or two missiles and they went down. Oh yeah! I got a company of mine (A different one mind you) to start building me a small station so I can set up my own little place in the Terminus Systems, better have them build some turrets though, just in case.

Day 300: Meh, same old grind, mineral research, station building, that Venture I had being built is finished, I just needed to have it furnished with the neural links.

Day 365: One year! I've been here an ENTIRE year! Wonder how Jack and the guys back home are doing. Eh, either way, those guys are gonna kick ass anyway. Shepard looks good ya know, just saying, all the right curves in all the right places. Hopefully these guys can get her mental acuities working. Other than that, nothing new.

Day 400: So, got that station built, now I have to just put it in place somewhere in the Terminus Systems, huh, wonder where, although now I need to somehow get it there… wonder if I can just hire someone…

Day 525: I DID IT! I DID IT! I finally managed to catalougue, compare, and everything in between with all the minerals in this place with back home. Man, even with someone who doesn't need to sleep that took a while. Anyway, now I got that done, I have the whole database in my memory implant, you know, funny thing is Cerberus still hasn't found out about all my implants. For an organization that prides itself on information and resources, they have horrible security.

Day 550: It seems that Shepard prematurely woke up. Well at least her mental acuities are working, and so is her body, hmm. Wonder how she would react when she finds out she was brought back form the dead. Well, good thing I added that cloning bay to my ship a few years ago. So much easier this way.

Day 555: Managed to wrangle a freight company to move that station of mine, I actually went to the dry dock it was being built at and installed the console and all that myself, and a liberal amount of nano bots. I also found a nice place to set it too. A star system that isn't yet cataloged, nice place to stage out in. But there is an inactive Relay there, so might need to put in a few turrets to surround it just in case. Those turrets I was talking about are also already finished, although they were the backups in case the turrets around my station broke down, oh well, money isn't exactly hard to come by.

Day 600: Got my station set up and the turrets also, I might want to try to activate the Relay, but eh. Its too much trouble you know, maybe in the future. Also Shepard is going good, had to help them from time to time though, idiots those guys are, some of them are good, but the rest? And Wilson was just THE worse. Ugh.

Day 633: I was walking past Wilson's office and I heard him talking with someone on the comms. I hacked into the cameras and the address he was talking to wasn't Cerberus. Huh.

Day 670: I kept tabs on Wilson since that time I found him talking with whoever. Sounds like he's going to do whatever he is going to do. I could just find out, but, I don't really want to. Plus it would be fun, haven't fought on the ground for a long time.

Chapter 2, Diary entries to Mass Effect 2 start. DONE! Review and stuff, the next chapter I'm starting on soon.

* * *

Anyone think that having Ange have her own station too much? Even though its small? I can see how that would be too much but then again she is a Capsuleer so she would try to get her own support and all that. Send me some input if you will about it if you can.


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: I do not own ME or EVE Online._

Wow, 200+ views already, didn't expect it to get so much in that short a time. Anyway, thank you to Simpli and Mister Cuddlesworth for your reviews, its highly appreciated. I encourage you guys to put in reviews, that way I know what I did wrong and what I did right.

But, on to the story, I'll be having fun with Ange's ground weapons, I never played Dust 514 so I'll be taking the liberty of giving her what I think she would have. Also, look on my bio for status updates on the story, I'll have it up after this chapter is uploaded.

Shepard's traits: Vanguard, Paragon, Earthborn, Sole Survivor.

' ' Thoughts

* * *

**A Rude Awakening**

"Wake up, Commander"

A voice comes out of the darkness. Like a lifeline to get out.

"Shepard do you hear me? Get out of that bed now - this facility is under attack."

Clinging to that voice, Shepard slowly wakes up. Blinking her eyes to adjust to the sudden bright glare of the lights on the ceiling. Slowly, she gets up, groaning in slight pain stabbing at her side.

"Shepard, your scars aren't healed but I need you to get moving. This facility is under attack."

Taking a quick look around, the first thing that reaches her eyes is the firefight happening right outside the windows across from him, the fire raging and tracer fire lancing to and fro.

"There's a pistol in a locker on the other side of the room. Hurry!"

Quickly getting off the table, taking hold of her side, groaning again from the pain, looks around and spots the aforementioned locker across the room.

"Grab the pistol and armor from the locker."

Hurrying towards the locker and opening it up reveals her armor and a pistol.

"You don't have time to wait around, Shepard! Grab your weapon and armor!"

Taking a hold of the armor, she quickly puts it on, relishing in the familiar feeling of the armor as it sits on her body. The only thing so far that is familiar. Then taking hold of the pistol and about to put in a thermal clip, except there wasn't one.

"This pistol doesn't have a thermal clip." Shepard quickly calls out.

"Its a med bay. We'll get you a clip from… damn it! Keep your head down Shepard! Shield yourself from the blast!"

Looking around, she spots a low wall covering some machinery,'Good enough', and takes cover behind it, just in time for a large explosion to occur and blowing the door leading out of its hinges. Quickly getting up and pointing her pistol at it the female voice comes back.

"Someone's hacking the security system trying to kill you. Look for a thermal clip for your pistol."

Moving forward towards the door, she spots the dead body presumably one of the personnel from this facility next to a thermal clip. Quickly swiping it up and loading it into the pistol, feeling a wee bit more secure now she has a weapon that can fire. The door ahead of her opens up.

"Looks like they set up a barricade to try holding the mechs off."

True to her word, the area immediately in front of the door was barricaded with tables, benches, crates, whatever could be found to be used as cover, and was used as the various pockmarks on them could attest. Quickly vaulting over and spotting another thermal clip on the ground but not before the voice piped back up.

"Look out!"

Looking to the other side of the room, there were some stairs leading away and coming down was a mech, supposedly one of the mechs originally used to help with security, now hacked and turned against the people it was supposed to protect. It turned her way, firing its weapon at her, luckily spotting a crate in front of her and quickly taking cover behind it. The shots hitting the crate or flying over her head. Waiting for a lull in the fire, she looked out of cover and aimed at the mech. Firing a few shots managing to shoot the head off the mech.'Looks like I still got it.'

"Keep moving. We need to get you to the shuttles."

Quickly swiping the thermal clip near her and pocketing it, she makes her way to the stairs, past a few dead bodies of more of the facility's personnel and keeping a wary eye towards the mech. Moving towards the door at the top of the stairs again the voice speaks.

"Shepard! Security mechs are closing in on your position. Take cover."

Looking around she spots another low wall a few meters ahead. Moving towards it and making it in time as the door ahead of her opens up revealing a mech coming down the hallway, firing it's gun at her. Taking quick aim at it's upper torso, fires off a couple of shots, taking it out. Then to her left another door opens and out comes a couple more mechs firing at her and taking cover behind the low wall in front of the door.

Moving under fire towards a different piece of cover whilst firing her pistol on the move, she grunts in frustration at her current predicament. Crouching down, she takes aim out the side and fires, taking down one of the mech, and to her surprise it exploded, taking out the mech standing right next to it. Quickly reloading, she keeps firing till all the mechs died before getting up, her pistol aimed at the doors.

"Nice work Shepard. Coast is clear."

Quickly moving towards the door in front, swiping up thermal clips the mechs dropped, she could hear cries of pain and terror.

"Don't waste time. I can't keep the mechs distracted too long."

Moving down the hallway, her pistol trained in front of her she passes a window stained with blood, the scene out the window of fires raging unchecked. Following the hallway she comes up on another door, before it more corpses. Opening it up again the voice pipes up.

"More reinforcements on the way. Grab the grenade launcher off the security officer's body."

Glancing down and seeing the grenade launcher near the body, she quickly picks it up and puts her pistol on a magnetic strip on her right thigh.

"Here comes the mechs. Use the grenade launcher to take them out."

Quickly taking cover on another low wall, the door on the level below her opens up revealing mechs coming through. Quickly taking aim at the mechs as they themselves open fire. Firing the launcher the recoil pushing her back a bit as the grenade launches forward landing right in the middle of the group, killing all of them. The blast rupturing what seems to be a fuel valve as it continuously spew fire, blocking off the hallway.

"Take the elevator down one floor."

Looking to her right, she spies an elevator conveniently already on her level. Compacting the launcher and placing it on her back, she takes her pistol in hand again, finding the launcher too bulky to be carrying around. Pressing the holographic button on the console, the elevator quickly goes down.

"Hurry! Get to the door! Run!"

'Are you serious? There's fire spewing and you want me to run through that?' Steeling herself in preparation for the headlong sprint anyway, she closes her eyes and runs through the fire. Feeling the fire licking at her skin before hitting the cool air again.

"You're doing - Shepard. Head to the - meet you -"

"Shepard? - read me? I've got - closing in - position."

Passing through the door, she was faced with an unlocked door in front of her and the hallway she came from leading to the right. Deciding to check the unlocked door, she opens it to jump back as a half disabled mech crawls towards her. Taking her pistol and quickly destroying it, she checks out the room. Finding a terminal on a desk she turns it on and the terminal plays what appears to be a log entry.

"Progress is slow, but subject shows signs of recovery. Major organs are once again functional, and there are signs of rudimentary neurological activity." Says a woman in the video. She was dressed in what appears to be a uniform like what the deceased personnel were wearing, with some differences. She had black hair and she looked rather tired.

'Ah, now I can put a face to that voice over the intercom.' Looking closely, she couldn't find any identification of any sort to tell her identity. Looking around she finds another terminal and turning it on a male voice comes on.

"Log update: The cost of this project is astronomical - over four billion credits so far. But nobody seems to care that we've gone over budget. I don't know where the boss gets all his money… maybe its better not to know. I just wished he'd kick a little more in my direction once in a while."

'Project? What project?' Thinking about that before getting out. Moving down the hallway reaching a flight of stairs she finds herself in front a window and someone on the other side.

"Shepard!" He calls out, before a shadow loom behind him. "No! Help! Help me!" Blue fire comes out the rifle of the mech, hitting the man in the back, killing him. Before moving back through the smoke.

'Goddamn it.' Shepard thought to herself. Finding another terminal she plays the log, its the same male voice and said a name,"Miranda", and how she was the project director. Could she be the voice helping her so far? Passing through a nearby door, she comes out to a gunfight playing out. One of the base personnel was alive it seems, and he's a biotic.

"Shepard? What the hell…" He says as he takes a quick glance in her direction before looking back at the mechs in front of him and with her help, kills off the mechs. Taking cover next to him, the door across opens, giving way to more mechs. Taking fire, the man starts to talk to her. "What are you doing here? I thought you were a work in progress."

"Are you with Miranda?" Shepard asks.

"Yeah, sorry. I forgot this is all new to you right now." He replies. "I'm Jacob Taylor, I've been stationed here for -" Before he could finish, a mech took aim at him and fires. Forcing him to take cover. "Damn it!" Getting up out of cover and fires, taking out one of the mechs before dropping back down to cover. "Things must be worse than I thought if Miranda's got you running around. I'll fill you in, but we better get you to the shuttle first."

"I know this isn't the best time, but I'm sick of stumbling around when I don't know what's going on." Shepard states quickly.

"Fair enough, I'll give you the quick version. You and your ship were attacked and destroyed. You were killed. Dead as dead can be when they brought you here. Our scientists spent the last two years putting you back together. You've been comatose or worse that whole time. Welcome back to your life." Jacob quickly states matter-of-factly.

If Shepard was surprised or shocked, she didn't show it. But a flicker behind her eyes went unnoticed by Jacob. "Where is here exactly? It doesn't look like an Alliance facility." Shepard asked, changing the subject.

"It isn't, I can't say much more than that for now. The Alliance officially declared you KIA. The whole galaxy thinks you're dead. If we don't get to those shuttles, they'll be right." Jacob replied.

"Were there any survivors from my ship?" Shepard asked, worried about her crew.

"I'll tell you what, you help me finish off these mechs, and I'll play Twenty Questions with you all day. We're low on thermal clips, but I'm a biotic. Just give me the order when you want me to hit them with the good stuff." Jacob answered, before getting up and using Pull to pull one of the mechs out of cover and dropping it into the chasm.

Shepard nods, before switching ammo types to Disruptor and aiming at the mechs ahead. Firing off a few shots, she drops back into cover, then calling out to Jacob,"Jacob, you know Singularity?"

"Yeah, want me to hit em with one?" Jacob answered, his right arm glowing blue.

"Yeah, target the ones clumped together if you can." Shepard replied, reloading her pistol.

Without another word, Jacob got up and threw a Singularity at the most grouped mechs across from them, resulting in three of the mechs slowly floating upwards, their limbs moving about futilely. Then Jacob fell back down into cover and Shepard got up and opened fire. The shots lancing out towards them, the Disruptor ammo doing its job nicely. Dropping back down after taking out the three mechs, she reloaded, then looking at Jacob nodded once and both of them got up and opened fire on the last few mechs, dropping them quickly enough.

After the last one fell, Jacob got up after reloading his pistol and placing it on a mag strip."Alright, what do you want to know?"

"How bad were my injuries when the brought me here?" Shepard asked, getting herself out of cover and also reloading her pistol but keeping it in her hand.

"I'm no doctor, but it was bad. When I first saw you, you were nothing but meat and tubes. Anywhere else and they would have put you in a coffin. But Project Lazarus was different. Cutting-edge technology."

"What do you mean? Cloning? Cybernetics?" Shepard asked, her voice sounding worried, but Jacob didn't seem to notice,

"I don't know the exact details, those you have to ask the scientists. But I'm pretty sure you're not a clone. They wanted to bring you back exactly as you were. You're still you… you just have a few extra bits and pieces now."

"I see...Lets get going, I doubt it'll be safe here any longer." Shepard said, seemingly worried about something. Jacob noticed this, but thought she was just worried about more mechs showing up. "Whats the fastest way to the shuttles?"

"Depends on where the mechs are thickest. Its probably best if we -" Jacob started, but cut off by another voice over the radio.

"Check, check. Anyone on this frequency? Anybody still alive out there? Hello?"

Shepard raised an eyebrow, realizing that the voice is the same one on the terminals a bit ago.

"Wilson? This is Jacob. I'm here with Commander Shepard. Just took out a wave of mechs over at D Wing."

"Shepard's alive? How the hell.. never mind. You need to get him out of there. Get to the service tunnels and head for the network control room." Wilson quickly replied, his stutter going unnoticed.

"Copy that Wilson, we're on our way, stay on this frequency. C'mon Shepard, lets get moving, the service tunnels are this way." Jacob then walked on ahead, leading the way.

Passing through a few more doors and hallways, they find themselves in a room with pipes and machinery and light up by red lights. Then out of nowhere mechs came out and started to open fire, forcing Jacob and Shepard into cover.

"Dammit Wilson! This room is crawling with mechs!" Jacob exclaimed into his omni-tool.

"The whole station is crawling with mechs! I'm doing the best I can!" Wilson called back.

Getting out, Shepard opened fire on a mech, the Disruptor ammo ripping open the mech's body before switching to another target and letting loose with the rest of the thermal clip, killing it. Then Jacob got up and threw a Pull at one, snagging it and slamming it on one of the pipes, giving off a loud crunch, before dropping it. Getting up, the started to move towards the door at the other end.

"Wilson? Find us another route out of here! Preferably one that doesn't lead straight into an enemy squad!" Jacob yelled into his omni-tool.

"Oh god, the found me! Help!" Wilson screamed over his omni-tool.

"Wilson, where are you?" Jacob asked.

"Server Room B! Hurry! They're out of control!"

"Up those stairs Shepard!" Jacob said, pointing to a set of stairs.

Running up the stairs, Wilson came back, yelling that he's been hit. Reaching the top, she turned right, opening a door and revealing Wilson on the floor with a bleeding leg."Shepard! Down here!"

"They hit me in the leg!" Cried Wilson. Jacob hurrying to his side checking on his leg, Shepard keeping an eye out for more mechs.

"Should be some medi-gel in the first-aid station on the wall." Jacob said, Shepard jogging over and getting it, before applying it to Wilson's wound.

"Thanks Shepard, never thought that you would save my life. Guess that makes us even now." Wilson said as he slowly gets back up.

"Alright, lets get to the shuttles before more mechs come back." Shepard said.

"Right, but we need to find Miranda first." Jacob replied.

"She's probably dead by now, she was over at D Wing when the mechs hit, that place was swarmed over. No way she survived.!" Wilson retorted.

"A bunch of mechs won't drop Miranda. She's alive." Jacob shot back.

Shepard put a hand up quickly, stalling the coming argument."Can we please get to the shuttle first? We'll see if we can't find her on the way."

Both Wilson and Jacob looked at Shepard, before sighing and nodding. Then Wilson piped up,"The shuttle bay is only a few…" Wilson didn't manage to finish his sentence as the door ahead of them opened and more mechs came out opening fire at them.

Taking cover behind some crates, Shepard motioned for Wilson to do an Overload on some explosive crates where the mechs were taking cover. Wilson got up and using his omni-tool cause them to explode, taking out the mechs and clearing the way.

"Shepard, if we tell you who we work for, will you trust me?" Jacob asked.

"Jacob, I don't think this is the right time." Wilson started.

"We won't make it if he's expecting a shot in the back." Jacob retorted."The Lazarus Project, the one who funded and controlled it is Cerberus."

"I see, can we get to the shuttle bay first? At least on a shuttle we won't get shot at by mechs." Shepard said, not saying much about how she felt about working with Cerberus.

Moving through the door, they passed through a door marked 'Shuttle Bay' and when they passed through they were set upon by even more mechs. Quickly taking them down, they moved towards the control room. There Wilson started running to the door."C'mon, through here." He said as he started punching in a code.

The door quickly opened up, and Miranda was the one who greeted them.

"Miranda! But, you were…" Wilson started but before he could go any further, a golden lance of light appeared and speared straight through his chest. He looked down and before he could do so much as fall, Miranda pressed her pistol to his forehead and pulled the trigger. His body blown back and falling with a thud. Before anyone could say a word, a voice came out of nowhere.

"So, you're the famous Commander Shepard…" The group looked towards the source of the voice, and seeing nothing until a woman uncloaked and rested her left hand on her hip, her right hand holding a weapon that was smoking from its barrel. She looked European in descent and wore a suit of armor that no one there recognized."I expected less, but watching through the cameras, you passed my expectations. My name's Ange, nice to meet you!"

* * *

Whew, there is Chapter 3, and I managed to write this between Thanksgiving prep. Anyway, enjoy and review please! Have a great Thanksgiving you guys!


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: I don't own EVE Online or ME._

Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry for the delay but here is Chapter 4 of the story!

Also I cannot believe this story got 700+ views in such a short time! Its insane!

' ' Thoughts

* * *

**The Calm Before the Storm**

The first thing that Shepard realized about Ange was her confidence. It was so thick that you could almost touch it. The next thing was the absence of Cerberus's trademark symbol on any part of her armor.

"Uh, hello Ange. You're not a part of Cerberus, are you?" Shepard asked straight off the bat.

"Perceptive aren't you? But you are correct, I'm not a part of Cerberus, just more like partnering with them for Project Lazarus to bring you back from the dead." Replied Ange with a giggle.

"Uh, I don't want to interrupt your conversation, but I have to interrupt your conversation. Can we please get on the shuttle first? There is a problem of mechs trying to kill us right now for your information." Jacob exclaimed.

"Oh please Jacob, those pathetic excuses for mechs aren't a threat. I can't believe those things are so hard for you people to destroy. But sure, this place is kinda getting boring." Ange said, turning around and climbing into the shuttle.

Behind her, Miranda was rolling her eyes, obviously used to her attitude before climbing into the shuttle, Jacob behind her and followed by Shepard until she stopped midway into the shuttle.

"Wait, what about any survivors?" She asked.

Miranda turned around to look at Shepard."This is the evac area, if they aren't here, then they're dead."

"She's right." Jacob piped up from his seat."We all knew the risks when we signed up, the only thing that matters is you, without you then all this isn't worth it."

Shepard looked between the two of them, her face looked like she didn't quite believe what they just said. But whatever her belief, she got on anyway, considering that this was the only shuttle off the station and they didn't look like they were going to wait.

Ange poked her head out from the pilot's seat."So, we ready to go or not. You've been complaining of wanting to get off but so far you guys are procrastinating."

All at the same time, they all looked at her and simultaneously said,"We're ready!"

"Hey, just asking." Replied Ange, putting her hands up in front of her defensively.

Punching a few buttons, the shuttle started to lift off, a few more buttons and the doors all closed, sealing shut with a hiss."Opening hangar doors." Ange called out. "And here we go, off the mech infested station with the first person to come back from the dead in this galaxy. Hey Miranda, mind giving me the coordinates."

Moving the shuttle out of the hangar into space, a ship could be seen right outside, its hull shining gold. Shepard stared at the ship, before looking back to Miranda and Jacob,"I'm guessing you guys own that ship."

Miranda was looking at her omni-tool, pressing buttons but she still replied,"No, we aren't the ones who own that ship, the one who owns that ship is -" But she couldn't finish it since Ange finished it for her.

" - ME! I own that marvelous piece of Amaarian engineering. The Curse Combat Recon vessel is one of my pride and joys." Ange interrupted, Shepard swore she could hear a smirk in there somewhere.

Miranda sighs, while still tapping on her omni-tool."There, the coordinates to the location we need to go to. Just head to the system relay, this shuttle can travel through."

"Arigato gozaimasu~ But first lets dock on my ship, my ship goes where I go, and I go where I want to!" Ange stated, a hint of amusement in her voice."Besides, you've been dying to take a look at the insides of my ship anyway, right Miranda?"

Shepard looked at Miranda, just in time to see the ghost of a twitch near her eye. Miranda herself not saying anything, but everyone could kinda sense Ange was right. Within a few seconds the view of space outside the windows were replaced with the view of a grey colored hangar."Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the Curse! Please enjoy they stay and a bit of warning, do not go anywhere the host tells you not to go to. Any injuries sustained by not following this rule will not be covered by the host. Have a nice stay!" Ange chirped, setting the shuttle down and opening the doors.

Getting off the shuttle, she was met with the view of a few drones lying on the floor in neat and even rows. Along with the sound of humming coming from somewhere on the ship. Walking past her, Ange lifted her arm in a follow gesture, herself humming to an unknown tune.

"Miranda, don't touch the drones please, they are semi-autonomous and will fire at anyone who they view as a threat, and don't even think about trying to hack into anything. You won't be able to anyway. Now this way please everyone, to the lounge!" Ange said, without even turning around. Shepard looked to where Miranda was, and surprisingly, Miranda was frozen in a stance like she was caught with her hand in a cookie jar, her hand just about to touch one of the drones, her face in a surprised expression whilst looking at Ange.

Once everyone was in the lounge, they could feel the ship suddenly shuddering. The only one not surprised was Ange as she walked to one of the doors."Alright, this is the lounge, guest rooms are through that door," pointing to a door to the side,"and food and drink you can get, just ask her." Pointing to a what I later learned was a android that walked through another door. The android looked almost exactly like a normal human being, except for the fact that it had glowing eyes, and what looked like hatches on parts of its body. It wa clothed in a semi-skimpy outfit, showing a part of her cleavage, but not enough to be obscene and her skirt reached the middle of her thighs.. She walked in with fluid grace, bowing once she stopped.

As one, both Miranda and Jacob moved their arms to their weapons, but Ange quickly defused the situation."She isn't dangerous you know, but even if you attacked her you wouldn't be able to destroy her before she kills you."

She turned and walked through a different door, the third and final one in the room."Just so you know, this is one of the rooms you shouldn't enter. There are security systems on this ship. Well, I'll see you in a bit, should only take a few hours to those coordinates. Feel free to use the guest rooms if you want to get some quick shuteye." And just like that the door closed. Leaving only her and Jacob and Miranda in the lounge. The lounge itself had an alien feel to it, but still felt like it was made and designed by a human. It was brightly lit, but was accented with the dark colors on the wall. There was a few large screens on the walls without the doors showing a symbol she didn't recognize, apparently neither did Miranda and Jacob. There was a few futons to sit on and they looked comfortable enough, but the material used to make them didn't feel like anything she knew, furthering the unknown feeling Shepard had about Ange.

But as she thought about these things, a sudden wave of exhaustion hit her, making her stumble a bit. To her surprise, the android saw this and approached her, concern written on her face."Miss? Would you like to use the guest rooms? My scans show that your body is healing at a fast rate, I recommend that you rest."

Shepard didn't reply, merely nodding her head and letting the mech help her to one of the rooms. Inside the room was a plush mattress, with a nightstand on both sides and a desk with a console on it on standby. The android helped her to the mattress and she instantly laid down on it. Feelings of comfort washed over her as she lay there, and quickly she succumbed to sleep's embrace. The android took the covers in hand and placed it over Shepard, before quietly leaving the room and back into the lounge.

Unbeknownst to the passengers, there are security cameras placed in each room, the light on them showing that they are indeed active.

As Ange walked through the hallways to her destination, she smiled, as a corner of her mind was looking through the camera in the room Shepard was resting in. 'She looks kinda cute and vulnerable sleeping, despite the reputation she has before she died.' Her memory implant started to tingle at the memory attempting to come up before she shoved it back down.

She kept walking till she reached a door marked with the sign [Cloning Bay]. The door opening as she neared revealing row upon row of bodies in stasis pods, ready to be used in case her current body was killed. Ange stepped to one of the pods, this one empty, and closed her eyes and jumped to her body in the capsule. The pod instantly closing, placing that body in stasis to be used whenever she wished.

In the capsule, she felt more alive, she could hear everything, see everything, and felt like she could touch anything she wanted. But she knew this was simply an illusion as she was merely being the ship, its sensors and instruments becoming her senses, its weapons becoming her arms and the engines her legs. With a thought, she could see what Miranda and Jacob was doing, both seemed like they were heeding her warnings as they were tapping on their omni-tools. Shepard looked completely out of it, sleeping on the bed peacefully enough. Putting her mind away from the cameras, she concentrated on piloting the ship.

When they reached the relay, the relay started powering up, and a few seconds later the ship was catapulted instantaneously to another part of the galaxy. Ange could 'feel' the jump through her sensors and if she could, she would have shivered as she couldn't get used to the feeling the relay gave her as she jumped. Coming out, she was given a view of a large space station orbiting a garden world with ships going to and fro. She activated the IFF tag Cerberus gave her and no ship or station defense that could possibly attack her attempt anything.

She then alerted her passengers,"Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at our destination. Thank you for flying Curse transport and we hope you enjoyed your flight. We will be in range in 10 minutes." The message was broadcasted to the whole ship, except the room Shepard was in. Jumping to her other body she left, she got out of the pod, and walked out to the lounge, seeing that Jacob and Miranda had already gone out to the drone bay. She entered the room where Shepard was resting, and stood next to her for a few seconds before shaking her shoulder trying to wake her up.

After a few seconds, Shepard groaned,"Five more minutes…"

Sighing, Ange flipped the covers off her, which opened Shepard to the cooler air outside the covers."Come on Shepard, time to get up and meet The Illusive Man. Don't make me bridal carry you, armor and all."

Shepard started moaning about how she was too tired, earning a small albeit sincere smile from Ange, but eventually she got up. Rubbing her eyes, she swept a bleary eyed look at her surroundings, before settling on Ange."I'm so freaking sore…" Shepard murmured.

"Well, we got a few minutes before we are actually in range for the shuttle, want me to give you a quick massage?" Ange offered.

The only answer given was Shepard taking off her armor and laying belly down onto the mattress, giving Ange full access to her back. Again, Ange smiled until the same memory started trying to come up to the surface again before Ange forced it back down, shoving it in a mental chest and locking it. She concentrated on Shepard's back, before placing her hands on the small of her back and kneading it with purpose. She started with the area around her neck, moving her auburn hair aside first before massaging it, then moving to her shoulders. She then moved down following her spine, massaging with enough force to relax the tired muscles there. Throughout the whole massage Shepard layed there, groaning from time to time when certain parts of her back was massaged. Soon enough it was over, and Ange dusted off her hands and Shepard got up.

Ange stood a bit away, her hands on her hips, waiting on Shepard. Shepard herself was cracking her neck and making sure any kinks she had was gone before getting up and strapping her armor back on. Then, turning around and with a nod, signaled for Ange to lead the way.

"Thanks Ange." Shepard mumbled quietly, but just enough for Ange to hear.

"Anytime Shepard." Ange replied.

Both Ange and Shepard then walked to the drone bay. Both still wearing their respective armor and checked their equipment.

"Alright then, lets get this damn show on the road, into the shuttle and lets be on our merry way." Ange called out. Motioning for everyone to get onboard the shuttle.

When everyone got onboard the shuttle, Ange flew out of the drone bay and headed for the station, aiming for an open hangar. As they got inside, Miranda took out her omni-tool and called someone, before calling out to Shepard,"The Illusive Man is waiting for you, follow me."

Shepard looked back towards Ange and Jacob, before going off and following Miranda. Jacob and Ange heading to a waiting area. As Shepard and Miranda reached a room, Miranda motioned for Shepard to head inside, before Miranda closed the door and seemingly left. Shepard was left standing in a dark room for a few seconds until an orange light appeared that circled around her and before she knew it, she could see The Illusive Man in front of her.

"Commander Shepard." TIM called out.

Unbeknownst to anyone on the station, Ange had hacked into the network aboard the station as soon as she got onboard, this she used to listen in on what Shepard and TIM was talking about.

"I was made to think you were going to meet me face to face, but why am I not surprised that we didn't." Shepard said.

"A necessary precaution. Not unusual for people who know what you and I know." Something lit up on his chair, but Shepard couldn't see what it was. Looking down at it, TIM's face lit up."Ah, it seems that we have another person to our chat." Pressing some buttons before a view of Ange came up, just like Shepard. Except Ange wasn't wearing any armor and she was in a different outfit.

In the time between TIM's chair lit up and pressing buttons, Ange was listening in before she received a message, from TIM of all people. Opening it up it read that TIM found her out and invited her to join in the chat. Accepting, she connected to the chat and since she was connecting from a mental link, she changed the outfit she would appear as.

When Ange came to view to Shepard's right, Shepard raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was here. Not saying anything, she waited for TIM to say something.

"Welcome, its impressive how you managed to hack into this channel, I didn't think anyone would have been able to intercept to this channel, much less hack in to listen to it in live time. If I may, who are you? You're not dressed in a fashion I know about around here." Tim stated.

Indeed was Ange dressed much differently than anyone would ever dress. Back in New Eden, the clothing would have been quite recognizable. She was wearing a white 'Executor' coat with gold trimmings and and white 'Greave' boots also with gold trimmings."Here I thought that Miranda would have told you about me, the name is Ange. But I must say, your security is sadly disappointing. If only the head can put up good security, I'm quite surprised how Cerberus is still standing."

TIM's eyes lit up in recognition,"Ah, so you're Ange. Indeed Miranda told me about you. But I must ask, how did you manage to hack into this channel?"

Ange smiled,"That is for you to find out. For who and what I am, I will not tell you simply like this. That would ruin all the fun now would it?"

TIM sighed, but nodded his head before looking back to Shepard."Humanity is up against the greatest threat of our brief existence."

Shepard looked back to TIM,"The Reapers."

"Good to see your memory is still intact. How are you feeling?" TIM replied.

"I don't have to answer that question, especially when it's asked by people like you." Shepard replied coldly.

"Cerberus isn't as evil as you believe. You and I are just on the same side; we just use different methods." TIM stated.

"Lets hurry this up a bit, why did you bring Shepard back from the dead? I heared it took a lot of resources to bring her back, resources that could have been used elsewhere." Ange cut into the conversation.

TIM sighed again,"We're at war. No one wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack. While you have been sleeping, entire colonies are disappearing. Human colonies. We believe it's someone working for the Reapers. Just as Saren aided Sovereign. You've seen it yourself. You bested them all. That's just one reason we chose you."

"Why not ask the Alliance, since this is effecting the whole of humanity." Ange asked.

TIM looked at Ange and said,"They suffered substantial losses fighting sovereign. They're rebuilding, still stretched too thin to waste resources verifying the Reaper threat. Blaming the abductions on mercs and pirates is easier, more convenient."

"I see." Ange nodded."But why did you decide to revive Shepard? You could do a lot of other stuff with the amount of resources you used."

"Shepard is unique, not just in ability or what she has experienced, but in what she represented. She stood for humanity at a key moment. She is more than a simple soldier, she's a symbol. I don't know if Reapers understand fear, but you killed one. They have to respect that." TIM said.

Nodding, Ange looked at TIM with a thoughtful look,"In the end, it boils down to one question, why is Cerberus involved. In my experience, those who help others like you do always expect something in return."

TIM looked at Ange with a tinge more respect now, then nodding,"Indeed that is true, but Cerberus is committed to the advancement and preservation of humanity. If the Reapers are targeting us, then Cerberus will stop them, or at least play a hand in their destruction. If we wait for the politicians to act, there will be no human colonies to protect before they come to a decision."

"Alright." Shepard started,"If what you say is true, and the Reapers are truly behind this, I'd consider helping you."

TIM looked back towards Shepard,"I'd be disappointed if you accepted any of this without seeing it for yourself. I have a shuttle ready to take you to Freedom's Progress, the latest human colony to be abducted. Miranda and Jacob will brief you." TIM then turned around and made to sit down in his chair.

"Am I supposed to trust those two just like that?" Shepard asked.

"Miranda does exactly what I tell her to do, and Jacob is a soldier, one of the best there is. He never really trusted me but at least he was honest about it." TIM replied.

"Do I have a choice or has it already been made for me?" Shepard asked, crossing her arms.

"You do have a choice. If you don't find the evidence pointing to the Reapers, then you can go do whatever you want to do. But first go to Freedom's Progress. Find any clues you can. Who is abducting the colonists and whether or not they have any connection to the Reapers. I brought you back. It's up to you to do the rest." TIM pressed a few buttons on his chair, and Shepard disappeared from in front of him.

As Shepard looked around, she could see she was back in the room, turning around she made to leave.

Back with TIM, Ange was still there pointedly looking at him before saying,"Indeed this should be interesting, and just so you know, I will be accompanying her through this mission, and any after Freedom's Progress should she find clues pointing to the Reapers. I'll be seeing you around TIM, be sure of that."

Her face turned deadly serious at that last sentence, before her hologram vanished. Leaving TIM to stew with what Ange had said, sighing before taking a last drag of his cigar.

"Indeed we will Ange… Indeed we will…" Snuffing out his cigar and pressing some buttons on his chair.

* * *

Chapter 4 complete! Thank you to L3ct0r for your review, it is highly appreciated.

I encourage all you guys to put in some reviews. Also please note that with school starting over again and my finals week coming in a few, chapters will come in rather slow so please bear with me.


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: Do not own EVE Online or ME._

Sorry about the short delay, school has been kicking my ass lately. Anyway, thank you to Mister Cuddlesworth, Kaioo, jabbarulez, and chaosrin for reviewing.

But on to the story, this time we're going to Freedom's Progress, so its time for combat!

' ' Thoughts

**Radio**

* * *

**Baptism by Fire**

When Shepard came out, she wasn't expecting Ange to be standing in the waiting area. There didn't seem to be another communication room she used to talk to TIM around, so she didn't know how she managed to connect to the chat. Yet another unknown about Ange. Looking around, Jacob was sitting on one of the benches going through his omni-tool, Miranda was standing behind a console tapping away.

Seeing that both Jacob and Miranda wasn't in a talking mood, she decided that she'll see if Ange might want to talk a bit. Walking to her, her boots making a _thunk _sound every time she takes a step. That's why before she reached Ange, Ange herself spoke up.

"Yo Commander." Ange said, not even turning around."Need something?"

Standing next to Ange and both looking out the window, Shepard kept silent. Seemingly collecting her thoughts. Then while looking out the window, Ange's ship flew by."Hey Ange, tell me about your ship. Where'd you get it?"

"Hmm, I think it was a few years ago. Bought it at Jita a little after the Burn Jita event. Man that was a fun time…."Ange said, staring out at her ship with a wistful look.

"Bad memory?" Shepard asked, turning her head around to look at her.

"Something like that…" Ange replied.

Deciding to change the subject, Ange remembered about Freedom's Progress."So, know anything about Freedom's Progress?"

"That place TIM wanted us to go next right? Well, it's basically an average colony out in the Terminus Systems, nothing special about it at all until losing contact." Ange said, crossing her arms.

"What you think we'll see over there? Pirates, slavers?" Shepard asked.

"Doubt it, probably nothing at all except empty buildings. Least that's what the search teams from Cerberus finds when they look into the colonies that goes dark." Ange said.

"I see. We probably should get going huh. Not much to do here anyway." Shepard said before turning around and walking towards Jacob.

"Yep, nothing at all." Ange murmured, turning around and following Shepard.

"Hey Jacob! You ready to go?" Shepard called out to Jacob.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." He said looking up, before quickly turning off his omni-tool and getting up from his seat and walking to Shepard."Time to get going Commander?"

"Yep, Freedom's Progress. Hey Miranda! You finished with whatever you're doing yet?" Shepard answered Jacob before shouting to Miranda across the room.

"Yes Commander, just finishing up some things, and…. done. Let's go shall we?" Miranda said stepping away from the console and walking towards Shepard.

"Alright well, TIM said we need to go to Freedom's Progress, it went dark some time ago right Miranda?" Shepard asked.

"Correct."

"Alright, lets go. No use standing around here." Shepard stated, before turning around and walking to the door leading to the hangar. After getting in the shuttle, they lifted off and headed for Ange's ship. Getting back inside through the Drone Bay, everyone went to the lounge area, and Ange went through her door again.

While enroute, everyone just lounged around, Miranda and Jacob both doing something on their omni-tools, Shepard doing maintenance on her weapons. Ange was somewhere on the ship, doing whatever she was doing. But soon enough they arrived at Freedom's Progress, a frozen ball or ice just warm enough through the year for colonization.

"And we have arrived ladies and gentlemen, to Freedom's Progress. Get your Winter gear on everyone, it seems that it's currently snowing down there." Ange said over the intercom, breaking everyone's concentration.

After telling everyone that they've reached their destination, Miranda, Jacob, and Shepard all went to the Drone Bay and got inside the shuttle. There they sat, waiting for what seemed like hours for Ange to get in. When she did though, they were surprised. When she climbed into the shuttle she wasn't wearing her armour everyone was familiar with. Instead she was wearing what seemed to be a lighter version of it. It was sleek and had hard angles, with a grey coloring coating the surface. It didn't gleam like what Shepard thought was every armour's bane. Instead it was somewhat dull if you look closely enough. It hugged her body tightly, showing off her body to any onlookers. It made no noise as Ange climbed in, adding the the silence in the shuttle, until someone broke it.

"Badass Ange, just badass…" Shepard turned her head to the speaker, which for some reason was unsurprisingly Jacob.

"Well I wouldn't say it that way, but yes, that armour does look durable." Miranda chorused. Her eyes going over the entire armour, like she was trying to somehow find out it's capabilities with only her eyes.

Shepard didn't say anything, but for some reason her eyes were drawn to the way Ange's body was accented through her armour. Her eyes hungrily going over every inch she could see, wondering what-'Wait, what am I thinking? I barely even know her!' Shepard thought. Breaking off that string of thought."You look nice in that armour Ange, but mind getting in the pilot's seat?" Shepard said with a hint of amusement.

"Of course Commander." Ange said through her grin, before walking into the pilot's cabin and starting up the engine. She piloted the shuttle out the Drone Bay and headed towards the colony below. Landing the shuttle onto a landing pad, she opened the shuttle door, and followed everyone else out.

"Alright everyone, weapons out, I don't want any surprises today." Shepard called out. Taking out her M-8 Avenger Assault Rifle. Looking around she walked to the door leading off the landing pad and moved to open it. But before she could, Ange called out to her.

"Hey Commander, mind if I moved on my own. It's easier for me that way, plus I'll tell you if anything's up ahead." Ange said. She was holding a weapon that looked like it was made out of gold. It gleamed in the low light given off the by the few lights in the area.

Turning around to look at Ange, she peered into her eyes. After a few silent seconds, Shepard said,"Fine, go on ahead. But call us if you need any help."

"Copy that. Be back in a flash." Ange replied, before she faded from view.

"Cloaking ability, interesting." Miranda murmured quietly, keeping that in mind for her next report on Ange.

Shepard, not flinching from Ange's action, turned back around to face the door. Reaching out, she pressed the button to open the door. As the door opened, she entered with her rifle aimed forward, Jacob and Miranda right behind her.

As they were walking forwards to the next door, Jacob piped up,"Looks like everyone just got up and left right in the middle of dinner." Indeed, past the first door was a table with food laden on top of it and it was half-eaten.

Reaching the next door, Shepard opened the door, opening up to a walkway over a chasm. The team walked down the walkway to the large door hopefully leading into the interior of the colony.

"Strange, no bodies, no structural damage. No signs of battle." Miranda said.

Reaching the door, the team stacked up. Before Shepard could open it, her radio buzzed.**"Shepard, Ange here. Looks like mechs ahead of you. Proceed with caution, they're active."**

"**Copy. Thanks for the heads up." **Shepard replied back."Miranda, Jacob, you hear that?"

"Affirmative." They both chorused.

"But it's strange. The security systems on the other colonies were disabled." Miranda added after.

"Come on, we'll find out when we get inside." Shepard said causing both of them to nod and readied their weapons.

Opening the door, Shepard lead the trio and caught sight of FENRIS mechs patrolling."Contact!" She yelled out before getting behind cover. Aiming over the crate, she let loose a couple of bursts at one mech, causing it to go down amid sparks before exploding. Falling back into cover, she looked over to see how Miranda and Jacob was doing.

Miranda was behind cover before standing up and throwing a Singularity at a group of mechs, her arm glowing blue. Seeing this, Shepard herself got up and fired the rest of her thermal clip at the hapless mechs. Getting back into cover after destroying a few, she popped a new clip into her rifle and saw that Jacob used a Pull on one mech causing it to float over the gaping chasm, before he released it, causing it to fall into the chasm.

Switching her ammo to Cryo, she came out of cover and performed a Charge right into a mass of mechs coming at them. The mechs got blown everywhere, the ones directly hit just flew backwards, hitting their own before exploding, taking down their allies. As she crouched in the middle, she aimed her rifle at the mechs lying on the ground, pumping their torso with a few bullets before doing another Charge at another few mechs.

Miranda and Jacob seeing Shepard go on the offensive, got up out of cover and started walking forward. Firing their weapons and using their Biotics to help out Shepard when they could, considering that she was just destroying them outright.

Suddenly Shepard jumped back towards Miranda and Jacob before calling out,"Hounds! Shoot them before they get close!"

Looking back forwards, true to her word, mechs that looked like dogs were charging them. Lifting their weapons, all three walked forwards aiming their weapons at the Hounds, pumping them full of bullets. As they fell, they soon exploded. The explosion larger than the usual explosion, fortunately, they exploded next to some mechs that were behind some cover thus clearing the way forward.

After a few more minutes of fighting, the area soon got silent, the mechs stopped coming. Giving the trio some respite from the fighting and letting them catch their breath.

"Those mechs shouldn't have been hostile. They should have recognized us as Human." Jacob said.

"Someone reprogrammed them to attack on sight. We're not alone here." Miranda added.

Nodding, Shepard walked forward with Miranda and Jacob trailing behind her, all three had their weapons trained at the door ahead of them. Moving inside, they found some medi-gel lying around and a safe, Shepard left the safe alone but then Miranda walked up to it and hacked it open. Shepard glared at her darkly, but Miranda just shrugged.

Walking out, more mechs came out of nowhere, and the three opened fire. Miranda used an Overload and took down a charging Hound mech and Jacob used a Pull and pulled it close before shooting it with a shotgun. Taking care of the mechs quickly, they stacked up in front of the next door before opening it.

To Shepard and co's surprise, what met them was a group of Quarians pouring over a holo-map. Quickly enough both parties pulled up their weapons and aimed it at each other.

"Stop right there!" One of the Quarians said.

"Prazza! You said you said you'd let me handle this!" Another said. The second Quarian sounded familiar to Shepard, before recognition hit him. Tali… "Wait, Shepard?"

"I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus operatives!" The one now known as Prazza said.

Before anyone could say anything else, another voice spoke up."Opening fire would be even worse than taking a chance." Before Ange deactivated her cloak and appeared behind the two Quarians in the back who had their rifles aimed at Shepard and co. She had her golden rifle in one hand, and what looked like a side arm in the other pressed on the two Quarian's heads. She had tilted her head to the side and was looking at Prazza, daring him to try.

Everyone at this point had turned around and looked at Ange, Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob had their weapons still up, while the Quarians had whipped around to look at Ange, except the two who had a weapon pressed to their head.

"Prazza. Put. Your weapon. Down." Tali hissed, and Prazza put his weapon down, his body slightly more tense seeing Ange just appearing out of nowhere like that. The other two Quarians just put their weapons down, but they looked absolutely _terrified_. Tali looked back at Shepard,"Can we just calm down a second here?"

Nodding, Shepard turned her head to look at Ange,"Stand down Ange."

Ange in response just smirked and recloaked and after a few seconds uncloaked next to Shepard, her pistol having disappeared and holding her golden rifle in both her hands. She still had that smirk on her face.

Shepard turned her head to look towards Tali, who was also staring at her.

"Shepard, is that really you?" Tali asked incredulously

.Shepard after a few seconds had a really big grin on her face before suddenly jumping Tali, hugging her as tight as possible. Prazza and the other Quarians brought up their weapons and aimed at Shepard, but Tali quickly held up a hand and stopped them.

After a few seconds, Shepard let Tali go and took a step back,"Man, it's good to see a friendly face, what's up Tali?"

Everyone more or less just sweatdropped, except for Ange, she just smirked. Looking at Tali, Shepard could see that her eyes were growing to the size of a dinner plate, and before she could say anything, Tali just jumped her back. After a second of shock, Shepard returned Tali's hug. After a few seconds, they both pulled back.

"I still don't see how this is possible, how are you here? I thought you died!" Tali exclaimed.

Shepard brought a free hand to scratch her head,"Well… Cerberus kinda brought me back to life or something like that. Now I'm here cause they need someone to investigate human colonies who drop off radar."

Before Tali could reply, Prazza butted in,"Likely story. No organization would commit so much resources to bring back one soldier." He said before crossing his arms after placing his rifle on his back.

Tali looked at Prazza,"You haven't seen Shepard in action Prazza. Trust me, it was money well spent."

"Indeed, if her records are anything to go by." Ange said cutting in.

Tali turned to look at Shepard,"Perhaps we can work together, we're here looking for a young Quarian named Veetor. He was here on Pilgrimage."

"Isn't that a bit weird? Why would a Quarian visit a remote human colony?" Shepard asked.

"Quarians can choose where they want to go for their Pilgrimage. Veetor liked the idea of helping a small settlement. He was always… nervous in crowds." Tali replied.

"She means that he's unstable. Combine that with damage to his CO2 scrubbers and an infection from an open-air exposure, and he's likely delirious." Prazza said.

"When we landed, he hid in a warehouse on the far side of town. We suspect he also reprogrammed the mechs to attack anything that moved." Tali said.

"That would explain why the mechs didn't recognize us as human." Miranda observed.

"Veetor is the only one who can tell us what happened here, why don't we team up?" Shepard suggested.

"That is a good idea, we need to teams to get past the drones anyway." Tali agreed.

"Now we're working with Cerberus?" Prazza asked incredulously.

Tali sighed, "No Prazza, you're working for me. If you can't follow orders, go wait on the ship." Turning around to look at Shepard,"Head of the warehouse through the center of the colony. We'll circle around the far side and draw off some of the drones to clear you a path."

"Your people really don't like Cerberus, something happen?" Shepard asked.

"They killed our people, infiltrated our flotilla, and tried to blow up one of our ships." Prazza replied.

Miranda looked like she was about to reply but was cut off from someone else. The person in question just groaned and facepalmed with her left hand."Oh my god… I knew you Cerberus people were idiots, but I didn't think you were stupid enough to try to blow up a Quarian ship, in the _flotilla _of all places… Seriously, are you people masochistic or something? Do you love antagonizing _every_ _other_ race out there? I'm honestly surprised someone hasn't ripped you guys a new asshole yet."

Everyone just looked at Ange and gawked. No expected her to start ranting like that, much less going off on Cerberus. Tali just looked at her and said,"You aren't Cerberus huh?"

"What tipped you off? My armor, my weapons, or my witty personality?" Ange replied sarcastically

The Quarians looked at Ange and realized that she wasn't at all wearing what Cerberus personnel would wear. For one thing, she didn't have any Cerberus tags on her anywhere. Tali after a few seconds looking at her outfit just said,"I like you." Before turning around to look at Shepard.

"This is fun and all Shepard, seeing you again, alive. But we should get moving, we need to find Veetor before his situation becomes more serious." Tali said.

Nodding, Shepard replied,"Alright, stay in contact through the radio."

Nodding, the Quarians took out their weapons and walked out through a door leading out. Tali before the door closed turned around and gave Shepard a quick wave before the door closed.

Sighing, Shepard motioned for everyone to ready up, Ange recloaked and went off somewhere. Shepard taking out her rifle, looked noticeably more energized, said,"Alright, lets do this."

* * *

Alright, there you have it, Chapter 5. Sorry about the long delay, but with finals coming up, I'm really busy with work.

Again, look at my bio for status updates on this story. You can see what the status is of the next chapter there.

For those of you who live on the West Coast, hope you weathered out that storm okay. It was disappointingly overhyped where I live at.


	6. Chapter 6

***Fireworks explodes into the air in the midst of maniacal laughter***

**I'm back! So sorry I didn't get this in sooner but between school and my own mind dead-set on not wanting to write I just couldn't find it in myself to sit down and finish this story. Then it did want to write but plot bunnies pooped out of nowhere and I had to write them down. Which lead to the creation of my new story.**

**Anywho… **_**Disclaimer: Do not own EVE Online or ME although I wish I owned EVE so I can get free lifetime subscription.**_

**Right, on to the story!**

* * *

**Coming Back Home to Our Home Away From Home**

Coming out of the building, the trio ran over the walkway to the next building, overhead, a squad of drones flew overhead causing all three to aim their weapons. While running over, Tali spoke over the radio,"**Be careful Shepard, there's a squad of security drones up ahead."**

"**Thanks for the warning, we'll take care of them." **Jacob replied.

Walking inside the next building, a security drone came online behind a counter right next to a safe. Instantly, the trio snapped up their weapons and opened fire, riddling the drone with bullets before it could even fully activate. Quickly, Miranda walked over to the safe and in a few seconds cracked it and took out the credits stored inside.

As they moved to go outside, Shepard's radio picked up again,"**Shepard, its Ange, aerial drones coming onto your pos. Make sure you're using Disruptor bullets."**

"**Copy Ange."** Shepard replied. Then the trio pushed out onto the walkway, quickly taking cover. True enough, a squad of drones flew in and came down on the opposite platform. As one, they rose out of cover and opened fire with bullets and overloads. Shepard fired her rifle at the closest drone, taking down its shields and blowing it up. Miranda tapped her omni-tool and aimed at the farthest drone and caused it to explode. The last drone was taken down from a combined fire from all three.

Then another squad flew in and started to shoot missiles at the group, forcing them to take cover. Before they could do anything, one of the drones exploded, then another, and another. This allowed them to edge out and open fire again, taking out the rest. After the fight, Shepard spoke into the radio,"**Ange, was that you?"**

"**Correct in one Shep. Certainly no ghost around these here parts."** Ange replied, a _slight_ sarcasm could be heard.

"**Shepard! Prazza and his squad rushed on ahead. I told them to wait but they wouldn't listen! They want to find Veetor and take him away before you get there!" **Tali suddenly crackled over the radio.

"**We should have expected this." **Miranda cut in.

"**Come on, we can still catch them." **Jacob added.

Moving through the next building, they came out onto a stairwell. As they were coming down, more drones flew in and started firing missiles. Taking cover, they waited for a lull in the incoming fire before getting up. Miranda threw an overload at one, blowing it aside and catching the one next to it in the explosion. Jacob and Shepard opened fire on the rest. After a few minutes, the drones stopped coming in and they could move forward to the loading docks up ahead.

"**Shepard, we're inside the loading docks. Veetor reprogrammed a heavy mech! It's tearing Prazza's squad apart!" **Tali said over the radio, sound of fighting could be heard bleeding through.

"They did want to get to Veetor first…**"** Miranda stated.

"**Get your squad into cover and I'll open the loading bay doors." **Tali said.

"We'll take cover by the doors, Shepard you take point." Miranda stated.

They each moved to their positions, Miranda and Jacob taking cover on either side of the large doors and Shepard taking cover behind a barricade in front of the doors. Quickly enough Tali opened the doors and the sounds of fighting could be heard easily. Moving forward gave them a front row seat to the massacre of Prazza's squad by the heavy mech. The Quarians tried to retreat, but the mech opened fire with its machine gun, cutting down some of them. Then, it looked towards some Quarians in a building opposite it, it moved one of its arms and fired a rocket, destroying the building and killing the Quarians inside it.

"That mech's got heavy armor plating, those Quarians never stood a chance." Jacob said as they got into cover.

"This is gonna be one tough son of a bitch to take down." Miranda added.

"**Use overload Shep, it'll take down its shield letting you shoot its armor."** Ange said over the radio.

As the mech was walking towards them, they got up out of cover and Miranda used an overload, taking out its shields. The mech stumbled, having its shields wrecked, before it got peppered by the incoming fire from all three, its armor slowly getting whittled down. But before it could get fully destroyed, the mech recovered and started firing, forcing all three back down into cover.

The mech kept walking towards the three, firing as it walked and not giving the team anytime to fire back."Can the two of you do anything?" Shepard called out to her team.

"Nope, I'm pinned down too." Miranda replied.

"Pinned." Jacob simply said.

"Damn it." Shepard cursed, before getting on her radio,**"Ange, we're pinned down right outside the objective. We have a heavy mech pinning us down, could use your help here."**

"**I see you, taking it out."** Ange replied, then a golden lance came out of its missile arm, then another from its chest, and another from its head, before it fell onto the ground in a heap. Getting up, the team looked to see Ange decloaking, resting her rifle on her shoulder.

"What would you guys do without me…" Ange said amusingly. Then she waved them to follow her into a building. "I scanned the inside, only one life form. Probably Veetor, so shouldn't worry about any mechs."

Nodding, Shepard motioned for the team to lower their weapons before opening the door, revealing a dark room illuminated only by the large bank of monitors on the wall across from them, with Veetor in front of it. Also Veetor was seemingly delirious as he was mumbling phrases,"Monsters coming back. Safe from swarms. Have to hide. No monsters. No swarms. No-no-no-no-no..."

"Veetor?" Shepard called out.

"No Veetor here. Not here. Swarms can't find. Monsters coming. Have to hide." Veetor rambled.

"Veetor, nobody's going to hurt you anymore, you're safe now." Shepard tried again,

"I don't think he can hear you commander." Jacob stated, and it was true. Veetor didn't make a move to reply or even acknowledge them. He merely sat in front of the computer banks and continued typing.

"Sheperd, let me try." Ange said, then closing her eyes for a second, before the monitor bank all turned into errors. Opening her eyes, she smirked, her probe into the computer already combing through all the data she can find; not that anyone knew of it.

Nodding in gratitude to Ange, Shepard could see the effects instantly. Veetor stared at the monitors in confusion, before swiveling in the chair to look at them."You're...You're human...But how? Where did you hide? Why didn't they find you?" He questioned.

"Who didn't find us Veetor?" Miranda said, trying to pry some info.

"The… The monsters, the swarms, they took everyone." Veetor stated, his voice continuously breaking.

"Why didn't the colonists fight back Veetor? What happened here?" Shepard pushed.

Shaking his head, Veetor turned back around,"You don't know, you didn't see. But I see everything…" Veetor said. Using his omni-tool, he turned the monitors back on, playing video. The video showed what seemed to be the colony, except there were what seemed to be bugs flying everywhere and something that looked like a casket being moved by something humanoid.

"Looks like a security footage. He must've pieced it together manually." Miranda observed.

"What the hell is that?" Jacob said, pointing at the humanoid looking being at the top right of the screen.

The video replayed again, this time, Ange paused it herself."My god, it looks like a Collector!" Miranda exclaimed.

Shepard looked behind her to the two Cerberus operatives,"Is that an alien?"

"They're a species from beyond the Omega 4 relay. Only a few people has seen one in person." Jacob explained.

"They usually work through intermediaries, like slavers or mercenaries. If they're involved with the Reapers somehow, it could explain what happened with the colonies…" Miranda continued.

"The Collectors have advanced technology. They could have something that can knock out an entire settlement at once for all we know." Jacob added, crossing his arms together.

The screen then showed a different set of footage. This time, it showed the area in front of the the loading docks, the area before Shepard and her team fought the heavy mech. Panning from right to left, it showed swarms of bugs everywhere while Collector troops patrolled the area. A group of Collectors could be seen moving the caskets through the large door into the loading docks.

"The seeker swarms. No one can hide. The seekers find you. Freeze you. Then the monsters take you away." Veetor sat back down into his chair, placing his hands on his head in distress.

"Can you tell me anything more about these swarms?" Shepard pushed.

"They go everywhere. They find you, sting you, freeze you. They don't stop till they find you." Veetor explained.

"They sound like miniature probes. Find victims, then immobilize them through a stasis field or a nerve toxin." Miranda theorized. Ange behind all three of them held a hand to hide her mouth, snickering.

'Oh dear Miranda. Phrasing~' Ange kept snickering for a few seconds more before collecting herself.

"What would happen after the swarms find you?"

"The monsters took the people onto the ship, then they left. The ship flew away. But I'm still here, so they'll be back. No one can escape!" Veetor started to thump his leg onto the floor, clear sign of heavy stress.

At this point Jacob cut in, "I think that's all we can get out of him Commander. Anymore and it looks like he'll break."

"Thank you Veetor for all the information, you helped us out a lot." Shepard said, kneeling in front of Veetor and placing a hand on his shoulder attempting to comfort him.

Veetor looked up, his hands now interlocked in front of his face, before he moved towards his omni-tool. "I studied them, the monsters, the swarms. I recorded them with my omni-tool. Lots of readings. Electro-magnetic. Dark Energy."Shepard's omni-tool then lit up, showing that it received a message.

"We need to get this data to the Illusive Man. Grab the Quarian and call the shuttle to come pick us up." Miranda spoke up, the last part towards Ange since she's the one who is controlling the shuttle.

It was at this point that Tali came into the room. "What?! Veetor is injured! He needs treatment, not an interrogation!" It was clear Tali was outraged.

"We aren't going to hurt him, we just need to see if he has anymore information. We'll bring him back unharmed." Jacob trying to reassure Tali.

"Your people already tried to betray us once. If we give him to you, we'll never have the intel we need." Miranda kept pushing, before someone else cut in.

"You do know that the only reason why they betrayed you was because they didn't trust you at all right?" Ange stated, an arm placed in the crook of the elbow of the other whilst pointing at Miranda. "If you only didn't blow up one of their ships, which I must point out is the only thing between their race's survival and their extinction, they wouldn't have betrayed you."

Surprised, Tali continued, "Your friend here is right, plus, Praza was an absolute idiot. He and his men paid for it in blood in the end. You can take Veetor's omni-tool data, just please, let me take him."

"Ange and Tali is right. Veetor is already on the verge of losing it, anymore and he'll break. Let Tali have him, we have the omni-tool data anyway and we can grab whatever security footage from the computer for later study. I'm not gonna budge from this Miranda so don't even think about arguing." Shepard basically just put her foot down, making Ange smirk.

"Very well Commander." Miranda said through clenched teeth.

"Thank you Shepard. Glad you're the one still giving the orders." Tali was obviously grateful. "Good luck out there. If I find anything that can help you, I'll let you know."

Ange then clapped her hands together, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. "Shuttles here boys and girls, time to bug out of this ghost town." As everyone filed out, Shepard took one last look at the computer screens before stepping out.

* * *

Arriving back at the station, a Cerberus member told Shepard that she was expected in the communications room, prompting her to walk straight there. Miranda went to her usual terminal while Jacob sat down in one of the chairs. Ange too, took a seat, placing her hands interlocked in her lap before bowing her head and closing her eyes, tapping into the comm line, hopefully undetected.

In the comm room, Shepard stood in front of the Illusive Man. "Shepard, good work on Freedom's Progress." The man still sitting in his seat, behind him the same star, smoking a cigar. "The Quarians sent us the information from Veetor's debriefing. No new data, but a surprising olive branch nonetheless. You and I have different methods, but you still get the job done."

Shepard scoffed, "You ever think that perhaps being heavy-handed doesn't always work out best? Kinda hard to get stuff done when there's someone trying to shoot you dead."

"While diplomacy is nice and all, it's difficult to achieve an objective through said method when everyone already sees you as a threat. But to the main point, you found proof that the Collectors are real and they are the ones behind the abductions."

Something in his voice ticked Shepard off the wrong way, "I'm feeling that you already knew all this beforehand."

"While I had theories, possibilities, suspicions…" He said, waving his hand in the air, "... I needed proof to hold them up. The Collectors are enigmatic at best. Collectors, from time to time, travel to the Terminus Systems, looking to gather seemingly unimportant items or specimens. Usually in exchange for their technology." Taking another breath from his cigar, "When their transactions are complete, they simply travel back through the unmapped Omega 4 relay. Up until now, we have had no definitive proof of direct aggression by the Collectors."

"Do we know anything about the Omega 4 relay, or anything beyond it? We could try hitting them at home."

"Not possible. We don't know anything about what is beyond that relay, and anyone that tried has never come back. We suspect that the Collector ships has something akin to IFF tags, allowing them to travel through safely, while those without it will be destroyed." He takes another drag of his cigar. "The ability to manipulate relays, just more evidence that they are connected to the Reapers."

"Do you know if there is a specific reason they're targeting humans specifically?"

"There could be any number of reasons if they truly are servants of the Reapers. They could be holding a grudge on the fact that humans played a major part in destroying Sovereign. But the big question is, what are they doing with the colonists once they are paralyzed? In their transactions before, they targeted those with rare genetic abnormalities or mutations, and even then it has only been in the dozens at most, not in the tens of thousands."

"The Council and Alliance believe that the Reaper threat died with Sovereign. You and I know better. We need to be the one to strike first, before the Reapers march on us." The Illusive Man sat there in his chair, his legs crossed, his arms resting on the arms of the seat, his cigar resting in his right hand, lightly smoking.

"If this is gonna boil down to a war, I'm going to need an army, or a really good team." Shepard said, crossing her arms behind her back.

"We have already put together a list of people for you, soldiers, scientists, engineers. You will get only the best. You'll only need to find them, and convince them to fight with you, but that shouldn't be so hard for such a talented leader. I'll keep tracking the Collectors, when they show up again, I'll notify you and your team, be vigilant, be ready."

"Very well, it may be possible that I can get the Council to help out, I am still a Spectre."

"If you think you can convince them, be my guest. Although they have to get past the fact that you died. But please remember, two years have gone by while you were gone, many things have changed."

"What about my old team, the people I had when I took down Saren and Sovereign?"

"They too, have changed. Garrus Vakarian, has vanished off the face of the galaxy. We do not know where he is. Ashley Williams, still with the Alliance, got promoted too I hear. Urdnot Wrex, returned to Tuchanka attempting to unite the Krogan clans, hasn't gone off world in over a year. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, you met her on Freedom's Progress, unfortunately I only know as much as you do. Liara T'soni, she is on Illium, although my sources say she has been working for the Shadow Broker, if so, she isn't to be trusted."

Sighing, Shepard backed off, "Very well, my old team isn't available."

"You are a leader Shepard, you'll get who you need to succeed in this mission. Two things before you go. First, head to Omega and find Mordin Solus, he is a brilliant Salarian scientist and can help you find a counter to the Collector's paralyzing seeker swarms. The second thing is that I found a pilot for you, one of the best I hear, someone you can trust." He waved his hand, motioning to behind Shepard, before he pressed a few icons on his chair, cutting the line.

As the line was cut, Shepard turned around and saw someone she didn't think she would see. Walking towards her was Joker, clad in a Cerberus uniform and an SR1 cap. "Hey Commander. Just like old times, huh?" He said with a smile.

The both of them walked out of the comm room and instead of coming out to the waiting room where everyone else was, Joker lead her to a room with one side being glass overlooking a large room, a hanger more like.

"I can't believe it's you Joker!" Shepard said, smiling a bright smile, glad to see one of her friends is going to be fighting with her.

"Look who's talking! I saw you get spaced." Joker said, walking towards the glass wall.

"I got lucky, but with a lot of strings attached. How'd you get here?"

"It all fell apart without you Commander. Everything you stirred up, the Council just wanted it gone. Team was broken up, records sealed, I was grounded. The Alliance took away the only thing that mattered to me, hell yeah I was gonna join Cerberus."

"You really trust the Illusive Man?"

"I don't trust anyone who makes more than I do. But they aren't all bad. Saved your life, let me fly-" Suddenly, another voice spoke up cutting Joker off.

"And gave you this sweet, new, ride ~" Turning around, Shepard and Joker saw Ange decloaking right behind them. Then she motioned towards the room that they all overlooked. "Joker's already had an orgasm about it. Shepard, welcome to your new home for the foreseeable future."

It was true, as soon as they turned back and looked through the window, the dark room lit up, slowly but surely, the spotlights showed the Normandy, as if it was never destroyed two years ago. Well, except for the fact that it was, it had the Cerberus logo and the paint scheme, and had SR2 instead of SR1 painted on the sides and front. It looked plain awesome and it was shiny too. Shepard herself had a glint to her eyes and a grin that split her face in two. Joker himself smiled looking at the ship, a swirl of emotions in his eyes. With Ange slightly behind them, they missed the melancholic way her eyes looked at the ship.

* * *

**Aaaaannnnnddddd CUT! Finished. The end. Fin. **

**I wanted to continue writing but if I did it would take longer to get this out. Sooo… I cut it right as the Normandy was revealed. Hopefully it won't take as long to get the next chapter out, but there are still plot bunnies trying force me to write them. Seriously, I got like two stories in my head like keeping me awake at night. Anyone like Riddick? I'll probably be getting new stories out or updating my other stories before writing chapter 7 for this one, so bear with me!**

**Next chapter has stuff you EVE fans probably know but in this chapter, we find out stuff about Ange, and that there is something wrong with her! Although I do need to go back to chapter 1 and rewrite that one, damn, when I reread that chapter it felt **_**really **_**stiff for some reason.**

**Man I jump all over the place...**

**Anyway, review! Review! **


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